George Hotz Wants to Sell You a Kit to Make Your Car Autonomous

Self-driving car technology is all the rage. Ford says it will have the technology by 2020, GM and Lyft are lobbying Congress, and Google’s autonomous technology drives 3 million virtual miles every day. But a 26-year-old hacker and his small team of software engineers plan to upend the entire market with a kit to retrofit your car into semi-autonomy by the end of 2016. George Hotz’s company, Comma.ai, received $3.1 million in funding from technology investment firm A16z on the first weekend of April. Flush with new money, Hotz plans to build on his staff of four to meet his ambitious end-of-year deadline. Comma.ai’s final product will be compatible with most cars made before 2012, and it will cost less than $1,000. If you haven’t heard of Hotz before, his…